Monday, May 24, 2010

Encounters With Rantwick, episode eleven: I Pass Something Annoying

It's wasn't a kidney stone, but oh, the pain!

I don't know about you, but when I pass another cyclist, I make a point of dropping them pretty quickly if I can. I do this because I hate it when somebody deems it necessary to pass me only to slow down and block my progress once they have done so. Sometimes when I'm kind of pumped up in the middle of a ride, I'll pass somebody going almost as fast as me. That is the worst, because then I feel obligated to kill myself rather than take a breather and allow them to pass me back. I get more exercise, but I always feel a bit stupid for caring whether I get overtaken by them. I mean, who cares, really?

This espisode of Encounters With Rantwick is all about a pass gone horribly wrong...

12 comments:

LOL, spot on! I so hear you about the feeling obligated to kill yourself if you pass somebody fast thing! I get the same feeling if I'm in the middle of, er, enjoying a short high-speed spring when I pass someone who's just cruising on a straight road ...

If I can disappear around a curve, I can slow down, otherwise I just have to keep riding as fast as I can. I worry that if I don't, they'll think I was just making a big show of passing them, LOL. This goes double for 'Real Cyclists,' because then I'm afraid they'll think I'm a n00b jerk trying to impress them, which of course on some level I am, which makes it thirty times worse :)

That's awesome! I think my very first blog I ever wrote was on this very subject. Lately I've resigned myself to telling people going nearly as fast as me that I was scared to pass them and hopefully we don't yo-yo, usually I never see them again after that.

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one with these sorts of issues. On the other side of things, though, if someone passes me and can't drop me I'll happily ride their wheel for a while... what can I say, I'm pretty lazy.

I find it impressive that you didn't lose him in all of those detour turns! But you are absolutely correct in not looking back. That demonstrates that you have no faith in your awesome abilities. I am glad you resisted.

Anon - First of all, sorry I took days to get to allowing your comment. Although you are probably long gone, never to return, I must answer your question.

I blew through no more and no fewer stop signs than I normally would. That is to say, if there is a car approaching the intersection, I stop. The video doesn't show how rapidly my head darts around looking for trouble as I go through those 4 ways.

Besides, I was only undone because I chose to queue up properly rather than passing on the right like my "opponent" did. Going by his behaviour on that stop, I'm guessing he blew through the same stops I did.